Tag Archives: scarflet

Okay, it got me. I need to knit at least one Christmas present. And here’s the yarn for it. So gorgeous. I can’t tell you who it’s for (a secret, of course). I’m not even sure what it’s going to be! I was thinking scarflet, but it depends on what the variegated yarn looks like when I swatch. It’s prettier in real life, but it’s dark out so we have a kitchen counter picture because that’s where the bright halogens are.

Here’s the second scarflet, which I never photographed before it went to its new life as a shop model. Isn’t it glamorous, being a model? She’s living over at Twisted.

Here’s the sky this evening. A front is coming in, and that makes for the best sky pictures!

These go pretty quickly in worsted weight yarn. The upper left square is the same pattern and yarn as my Checkerboard Scarflet. I measured my scarflet, and it’s 6 inches wide, which meant no refiguring gauge to get a six inch square! The Mitered Square is the same gauge as my garter stitch log cabin blanket; I just counted to find that 27 stitches = 6 inches, so this mitered square starts with double that, or 54 stitches.

The third square, still in progress, is based on Joan Schrouder’s afghan square in XRX’s Great American Afghan. It’s a twirly square! I’m going to rip it out and do it again with fewer rounds of the stockinette/reverse stockinette per stripe, so it can have more stripes within the 6 inches. Instead of 6 rounds, I’ll cut it back to 4 for each stitch pattern. I’ll stop at 5 inches, and add a garter stitch border. It didn’t take long to do (I was standing in line at student/teacher conferences this morning) so it’s an easy re-knit.

How was *your* weekend?

I’ve been thinking about this picture for a week. I didn’t have a camera on my walk last Sunday, and then the rains came. My next chance came yesterday.

I love the way the ghosts of the leaves remain, long after the leaves are gone.

The brown leaves caught in the camellia hedge look bittersweet.

I like these late afternoon walks. The slanting light makes everything look slightly magical. There’s not time for a long walk, but it’s pretty invigorating anyway, because of these:

The neighborhood is built along a ridge, and there are public staircases between some of the hillside lots. Three are close to my house. They’re like secret passages, and they get the heart pumping!

I’m helping with a knitting party at Twisted in January. The party was a buy-in item at our high school booster club auction. Participants will receive yarn, Lantern Moon needles, and a lovely morning of tea and treats, as well as knitting instruction. I wanted to add a little more to the package, so I’m making stitch markers in school colors, and a pattern for a relatively simple project.

I had some leftover Louet Riverstone worsted from the Central Park Hoodie, as well as the almost perfect buttons. I needed a pattern that has some visual/textural interest, but wouldn’t be too hard for relative beginners. A lot of beginners start with an endless garter stitch scarf, but I know a lot of beginners lose interest in that endless scarf! So how about a shorter scarf? With buttons, because I have some that are perfect with this yarn?

And so the Checkerboard Scarflet was born. It’s pretty simple, just a knit/purl checkerboard pattern. Writing it was harder than knitting it!

It’s very cozy to wear. It will be great under my wool coat when it gets cooler.

It’s hard trying to take a picture of your own neck without seeing the viewfinder!

I thought about moving the buttonholes to the beginning of the project, rather than the end. But that made the beginning of the pattern more confusing for a beginning knitter. Also, I figured that if one were a relatively new knitter, the end of the scarflet would be better looking than the beginning, and the buttonhole end is the end that overlaps on top. We wants the pretty on the part that shows! So I’m leaving the buttonholes for the end. Isn’t it interesting what goes into deciding these things?